I Have An Offer For You, Mr Eames
by Tigerlily06
Summary: Eames wakes to a stranger in his flat waiting to offer him the job of a lifetime.


Eames' eyes snapped open and closed just as quickly as the bright sunlight coming into his bedroom tried to sear its way into his still numb brain. He tried again, but this time just squinted as he rolled out of bed and closed the blinds on the offending orb of brightness.

He scratched his ass through his boxers as he made his way into the bathroom to finish waking up by draining his bladder and scraping the fur from his tongue. Another night wasted with too much drinking, gambling and bringing home a man with even looser morals than he possessed.

Once he was more aware of his surroundings, he left the bathroom and grabbed a pair of pants that somehow had managed to hang themselves from his ceiling fan and donned them. He wasn't surprised to find that his partner from the night before had already departed.

He rubbed a hand over his head further messing up his hair as he wandered into the kitchen intent on a proper cup of tea and a smoke. He stopped short when he heard, "Hello, Jack. I was wondering when you would join the living."

"Who the fuck are you, mate?" Eames growled the question thinking how fast he could get to the gun he had hidden in the cutlery drawer.

"I'm Arthur," the other man simply announced. He was thin with dark, slicked back hair and well dressed in a dark gray three pieced suit. He placed Eames' gun on the battered, red Formica table after he expertly removed the magazine and the already chambered round. "I would commend you on your choice of hiding places if it hadn't been so obvious."

"Gram always claimed that hiding things in plain sight often allowed them to be overlooked," Eames replied as he decided to go about fixing his cup of tea. He wasn't going to allow this Arthur person, as if that were his real name, to intimidate him.

After he set the water for his tea boiling, Eames reached into the freezer for a fresh pack of smokes. He packed the box and opened it. He flipped one of the cylinders into his mouth and was searching for a light when a flame appear in front of his face.

He leaned in and lit the cigarette. He took a drag on it and blew the smoke toward the ceiling before saying, "Thank you, Arthur."

"You're welcome," Arthur replied as he returned to his seat at the table.

"I assume that you aren't with the police, so why are you here, Arthur?" Eames inquired exaggerating the other man's name. "If that's your name to begin with."

"Is Eames your surname, Jack?" Arthur countered with a slight smirk.

"Touche, darling."

"Your water is ready."

"So, it is," Eames murmured. He finished his cigarette and crushed it out in the spoon rest instead of the ashtray that sat next to his discarded gun. He then set about making tea for two. "Do you take cream and sugar?"

"Just sugar, please."

"Not very imaginative." Eames set a chipped, white cup in front of Arthur before joining him at the table.

"I'll leave that up to you, Jack."

Eames smirked over the rim of his equally battered cup. "My reputation proceeds me."

"It does."

"So what can a man of my many talents do for you?"

"I work for the Cobbs and they are in need of a forger," Arthur explained. "Would this interest you?"

Eames leaned back in his chair his lips pursed in thought. He had heard of the Cobbs and their work in the field of dream sharing, but wanting to get to know more about the man sitting in front of him is what prompted Eames to say, "Yes, it does, Arthur."

Arthur rewarded Eames with a warm smile. "Good," he said. He pulled out a card and slid it across the table. "Be at that address around ten in the morning two weeks from now."

Eames leaned forward and picked up the card. His eyebrow arched in amused surprise when he saw that it was a Paris address. "Will you be there?"

"Yes," Arthur answered before finishing his tea. "And, you had better be on time, because if I have to come find you again, the consequences will be very unpleasant."

"Is that suppose to make me afraid of you, darling?"

"It should."

"Well, then I shall endeavor to be punctual. Wouldn't want you to be the slightest bit inconvenienced."

"Good day, Mr. Eames."

"Good bye, darling," Eames said watching Arthur walk out of his flat before reaching for his cell phone to do some checking up on his new employers and their point man.


End file.
